Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for measuring a relative positional relation between two objects which are present in space.
Description of the Related Art
As a technology for measuring a position of an object which is present in space, a Global Positioning System (GPS) using radio waves and a technology using image analysis are widely known (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-298607 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-217490).
GPS uses radio waves having a velocity of light as an information transmission medium. Accordingly, clock frequencies used in personal computers and/or D-A converters, which are popularized today, are insufficient to perform accurate measurement of a distance between a receiver and a transmitter which are placed in very close range, on the order of a millimeter or less, based on arrival time of the radio waves.
In the position measuring technology using image analysis, a computer performs arithmetic processing of an image taken with a CCD camera and the like. This requires a large-scale optical measurement system, so that a computer has a high arithmetic processing load, resulting in a problem of limited real-time processing.